Kokoro
by Selenity Jade
Summary: Complete One-Shot Aya/Touya WAFF fic that pays a nice little tribute to Yuuhi in there. Aya and Touya's wedding after the birth of their daughter.


_**Kokoro**  
By Selenity Jade  
Rated: M_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ayashi no Ceres, though if maybe Watase-sama could loan me Touya for a bit... 

**Pairing:** Aya/Touya - yes, I like that pairing, thank you very much. I love Yuuhi but I adore Touya. AnC happens to be the only place I have seen that has more of an off-pairing following than the canon pairing following. So odd.

**AN:** Sadly, the only two awesome AnC fics I've found online (and I'm not saying I've looked everywhere) happen to be Yuuhi/Touya fics. Oo; Yes, you read that right. I found two awesome yaoi Yuuhi/Touya fics and I don't even LIKE that pairing. (bangs head on table) Hence my need to do this fic. I want just one good Aya/Touya fic and since I can't find one on my own, I'll write my own and while it may not be good, it might help me with my Aya/Touya craving. 

I've watched the entire anime (again), read the entire manga, and know basically what happens in the sequel to AnC novels. I'm going to take lots from the sequel (since the creator did help with it and all), but I am going to ignore most of the plot of that sequel and the babies created in it from frozen eggs. Okay?

Anyone who's watched anime could probably figure out the title. If not, translation at the bottom.

xxx

_"I probably don't have... much time left."_

Yuuhi scrubbed his soapy hair harder in irritation. _Don't have much time left, my ass. He's still alive and it's been three years since he asked me..._ Just the thought of the man Aya loved made Yuuhi agitated still. Though he was happy for her and he _liked_ Touya well enough - or as well as you can like a man who doesn't really express himself.

"Yuuhi! Are you going to spend all afternoon in the shower?" Suzuma called through the door.

"I'll be out in a minute!" the young man screamed back.

"Well hurry up! We're going to be late for the wedding!"

Yuuhi growled, dunking his head under the shower spray to rinse the soap out of his hair. _And to top it all off, now I have to be in their wedding. Though it's about damned time they finally made it official._

Touya had kept insisting that they not marry because he wasn't going to last long, but once they found out Aya was pregnant with their second child, Yuuhi figured Aya finally turned on the tears. Even as emotionless as he seemed to be to everyone else, Yuuhi had to admit that he kept showing how much Aya meant to him in little ways. Touya was completely unable to stand up to Aya when she cried.

Yuuhi knew his sister-in-law found it adorable. He just found it irritating. It'd have been much easier for him if Touya had turned out to be just as emotionless as he appeared. Aya was more in love with him now and continued to grow more attached to him with every passing day. He knew Touya felt he wasn't going to live much longer and if that were true, it was going to be harder for Aya when he did pass on the longer he took to actually do it.

He didn't have it in his heart to wish for the man's death, though. Aya needed _Touya_, no one else. She needed the man like she needed food, air, and water, and he wasn't stupid. He could see it.

Yuuhi turned off the shower and stood in the steam-filled stall. He still loved her and thought of her often, but love is hard to hold up when the person you loved had been living with another man so blissfully happy all this time. And because he loved her, he hoped Touya lived another hundred years.

He didn't want to see her completely destroyed by his death and he knew... He knew she would be.

xxx

"Aya?"

Smiling, Aya opened the door for her mother. 

"Are you getting nervous yet?"

"I'm scared to death!" Aya admitted softly, glancing into the mirror. She hoped she looked alright. She wasn't used to dressing this extravagantly.

"You look beautiful, Aya," her mother assured her.

"Do you really think so?" the young woman asked, turning around slightly. "I just feel so... big."

"That happens when you're pregnant."

Aya laughed. "I felt that way when I was pregnant with Miku too, but I never had to wear a formal gown then!"

The older woman wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulders. "If you wanted to be girlishly slim for your wedding, you should have waited until you gave birth. As it is, no one is going to even notice."

Shaking her head, Aya tried to soothe the gown over her extended belly. She wasn't exactly big yet, she still had months left to go. She simply_felt_ like everyone would notice the slight bulge around her middle. "Do you think Touya will think I look okay?"

Her mother kissed her forehead. "Honey, your Touya thinks you look beautiful all the time."

"I hope so..."

"Honey, believe me. I've never seen a man so devoted before."

"How can you tell?" Aya asked, glancing up at her mother. "No one else seems to be able to tell what Touya feels except for me."

"I can tell because he is never far from you, dear."

xxx

"Oi."

Touya glanced up from his spot by the window. "Aogiri?"

"What are you doing?" the other man asked.

"Nothing," Touya stated, turning from the window. "Is it almost time?"

"Not quite," Aya's friend answered, adjusting his tuxedo coat. "I hate these things."

Touya simply shook his head. "It is what Aya wants."

"And whatever Aya wants, Aya gets," the younger man grumbled.

Touya smiled faintly. "You just now realized this?"

"No, I was simply stating it again, is all." Aogiri glanced out the window. "Oi, Touya."

The scarlet-haired man turned to the other man with an eyebrow raised inquiringly.

"Why didn't you marry Aya before this?"

Touya glanced towards the doors his soon-to-be wife will emerge from soon. "I thought it'd be harder for her when I was gone and she never really seemed upset about it."

"So she finally turned on the tears for this?"

He shook his head. "No. An old friend of hers from school sent her a wedding invitation. She didn't have to say anything to me about it. I asked her three days later on her birthday."

"Touya, Yuuhi! It's almost time! Get to your places!"

xxx

Aya fidgeted next to Yuuhi as she waited. "I am so nervous."

She felt her friend squeeze her hand as it rested on his arm. "It'll be fine, Aya."

"But what if Touya doesn't-"

"Don't be silly. Touya loves you."

"He only did this because I was sad, Yuuhi. What if-?"

"Silly," Yuuhi murmured to her fondly. "He loves you. He loves you and your daughter with all his heart. He wants to do this."

"Do you really think so?"

"I don't think, I know."

"Really?"

"I never told you this before, but do you remember when he died?"

She nodded soberly, glancing up at him.

"We were still connected by radio. He said your name and then I heard a gunshot, then nothing. Even back then, his thoughts are always on you. Even facing death, he said your name with more emotion than he's ever showed about anything else. So I don't _think_, I _know._"

She paused as she thought that over. "Thank you, Yuuhi," Aya told him with a smile.

"For?"

"For giving me away in place of my father and my twin. I can't think of a better person for it than you."

She smiled at the faint blush that appeared over his cheeks. "You're welcome," he told her embarrassed.

xxx

He kissed her. He kissed her as he had done so many times before and as always, it felt as special as the first time he had kissed her up in that old pine tree.

She felt her fingers grip his shirt in an effort to stay on her feet. He always affected her like this. He always made her feel as if time would stop for them each time they kissed.

When he pulled back just enough to stare down into her eyes, she felt tears slip down her cheeks at the love she felt reflected back at her.

His eyes widened anxiously. "Why...?"

She shook her head, kissing his chin softly. "I'm happy, Touya, not sad. Don't panic."

He smiled slightly at her, brushing back her tears. "You're not supposed to cry."

"Says who?" she demanded, sniffling as she tried to hold back more tears. It was real. They were officially married.

He hesitated as he struggled to find words to express what he felt. He was always like that, though, and that is part of why she loved him so much. Words weren't enough between them. Words were never enough to tell each other how they felt. She could usually come up with some words that would explain how she was feeling, but he still couldn't. Even after finally saying 'I love you' to her, he still felt words were so inadequate and struggled to find the ones to say what he felt. He didn't tell her he loved her often, he expressed it instead. She hoped that never changed about him.

"It's okay, Touya. I know," she assured him, leaning up to kiss him again.

"Will you two stop making out now? We still have the reception!" Yuuhi butt in to the amusement of everyone present. "Sheesh, you'd think after years they'd stop making us gag with how cutesy they are."

"Shut up, Yuuhi," Suzuma ordered with a smile.

"Mama and Daddy are marrwied now?"

"Yes, Miku," Suzuma answered as she held the little girl's hand.

"What does that mean?"

Touya and Aya both glanced over to the three-year-old with almost identical smiles of affection.

xxx

"Do you remember..."

"Hmm?" Touya opened his eyes to find his wife smiling at him from a bare two inches away. 

"Remember the first time you kissed me?"

A smile tugged at his mouth as he purposely shut his eyes again. "In the pine tree. I was trying to shut you up."

"Oh, is that all?" she asked with an affliction in her voice he knew well.

"Mostly," he admitted. "If I hadn't been thinking of you most of the time since I saved you from that car the day before, I probably would have come up with a different way to shut you up."

She gave that sultry laugh he found erotic. "I see."

"Aya," he murmured, touching her cheek with his fingertips as he opened his eyes again. "Are you sure you're happy with being married to me now? I don't know how much longer-"

"Don't say it," she interrupted frantically. "Don't say it, not tonight. Not the first night we have as husband and wife."

He relented immediately, unable to bear to see her eyes fill up with tears again. Her tears had always been his undoing. She had had to teach him so much when they were first together and even now, years later, she continued to teach him exactly what it was to be human and to love.

"Touya?"

He kissed her mouth softly. "Hm?"

"Stay with me."

"I will always be with you, Aya."

"I mean alive with me."

Touya tightened his arms around her, pulling her more firmly against his chest as he spooned against her back. He rested her head under his chin. "I'll do my best."

"I know," she whispered in the darkened room. "I think you'll stay alive a lot longer than you think."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because I became one with the mana and you became one with me."

He laughed softly at her logic. "Maybe so."

"And I want nothing more than you to stay by me and our children."

He moved his hand to palm her lower stomach. His eyes slid closed as he felt her hand press over his.

"Thank you, Touya."

His arms tightened around her. "Don't thank me for being selfish."

"Selfish?"

"I can't give you up," he told her softly. "I asked Aogiri back when you were pregnant with Miku to take care of you and our daughter when I was gone."

"You did?"

"Yes. I want you to be happy and I know he loves you. I know I can trust him to make sure you're okay and as happy as can be."

"Touya..."

"But I just can't give you up yet."

She smiled. "Does that mean you're finally jealous?"

He stared at her for a long moment. "I don't know."

Aya raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"

"I don't know exactly what jealousy feels like."

He was happy to see her burst into full-out joyous laughter. He loved it when she was happy. "You don't _know_?"

"When have I had an occasion to know, Aya? You're the only woman I've ever loved and you're the one who taught me about emotion and what it meant to have a heart."

She fell into helpless giggles at that point and he smiled to see it. "You were jealous once before, you know. You were shocked I was happy about it."

"I remember that, but I don't think I was exactly jealous."

"You're impossible!" she exploded, still helpless with mirth.

"Thanks," he answered dryly, kissing her in mid-laugh, determined to make her forget everything but their love. At least for awhile.

xxx

**AN:** Well. I don't know about this one either.

**Japanese:**

- kokoro: heart. Yup, that's it. Heart.

Lovies!


End file.
